Residents from across West Norfolk gathered at King’s Lynn Town Hall on Thursday, where the Borough Council of King’s Lynn and West Norfolk expected to debate a dangerous and backwards looking motion submitted by the Reform political group. The motion claims that climate policies are raising taxes and hitting the poorest hardest. It therefore proposes to “scrap all net zero policies and targets immediately, including the 2035 target, Climate Change Strategy, building decarbonisation programme, and Eco Scheme.”
Before the meeting, 16 campaigners from Extinction Rebellion King’s Lynn and other groups gathered at the King’s Lynn town hall to peacefully demonstrate and express opposition to Reform’s climate wrecking motion. We spoke to many councillors as they arrived to enter the hall for the meeting, most of whom supported tackling climate change and so were against Reform’s motion.
In the meeting on 27th November, Reform leader Cllr Kirk asked “on reflection” to withdraw the motion in favour of bringing “a revised motion in January”. Clearly pressure from the public as well as a strong opposition within the council led Reform to think again about their backwards looking ideas. In response to a question from Conservative Cllr Dark about the motion, council leader Cllr Beales said “I can reassure you that this administration has no intention of removing this council from the list” referring to the councils who have declared a climate emergency and set a net zero target.
In July this year, a report by the Office for Budget Responsibility showed that reaching net zero will cost an average of £70 per person per year, much less than the projected 8% hit to the economy which would be caused by worsening extreme weather and other climate impacts if we reach 3°C of heating.
“West Norfolk is one of the most vulnerable places in Britain to climate change, not just from sea level rise but also inland flooding, droughts, heatwaves and even wildfires” says Dr Charlie Gardner, a conservation scientist from Ashwicken. “The threats are getting worse and worse, and studies show that taking action to decarbonise now will be much cheaper than doing nothing and suffering the consequences. Just after world leaders gathered in Brazil to discuss accelerating action on climate change, it’s shocking that Reform are trying to take us in the wrong direction and undo the important progress already made by our council.”
Campaigners also highlighted Reform’s links to the fossil fuel industry. “90% of Reform’s funding over recent years has come from dirty energy interests, people invested in oil companies”, said Robert Shippey from Downham Market. “We want our council to be doing what’s right for our towns and our region, not what’s right for the oil industry. This is completely wrong.”
